The Ad-Hoc Committee of the House of Representatives investigating the near-collapse of the Nigerian Capital Market on Tuesday summoned a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Charles Soludo, and the former Director-General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Prof. Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke.

The eight-member panel, which is headed by Mr. Ibrahim El-Sudi, also summoned a former DG of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Musa Alfaki, and five former bank managing directors.

Among the former bank MDs summoned were Mrs. Cecilia Ibru (Oceanic Bank); Mr. Erastus Akingbola (Intercontinental Bank); and Mr. Francis Atuche (Bank-PHB).

Others were Barth Ebong (Union Bank) and Mr. Francis Atuche.

The committee directed the listed persons to appear before or on April 20 to give their perspectives on what led to the crisis in the capital market.

El-Sudi said that the committee made the invitation a public issue so that the affected persons would not claim that they were not aware.

“We don’t want anybody to be taken unawares, but at the same time we are not issuing threats”, he added.

The investigation had a shaky start on Tuesday as many stakeholders stayed away.

Over 20 stakeholders were listed to appear before the eight-member panel of the House on the first day (Tuesday).

However, apart from the Society for Analytical Economics, represented by its President, Dr. Godwin Owoh, the majority of those listed for Tuesday did not appear.

 El-Sudi  had to reschedule their appearances.

He also restructured the programme of the hearing to bring up stakeholders originally listed to appear on other dates.

El-Sudi had blamed the development on the Easter break, saying that some of the stakeholders had yet to settle down after the break.

He added that some stakeholders wrote the committee seeking to be given other dates for appearance as against Tuesday.

SEC, the regulatory authority of the market, was officially listed on the programme to appear on the fifth day of the hearing, April 23.

As the Speaker of the House, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, declared the hearing open, he appealed to both the committee and stakeholders to drop the combative approach that was witnessed in March when the hearing was conducted by the House Committee on Capital Market and other Institutions.

The Minority Leader of the House, Mr. Femi Gbajamiamila, who represented Tambuwal, said that the hearing would not be “adversarial” but sought to find solutions to the crises in the market.

He stated, “Let us put whatever happened before behind us and start from a new beginning for great expectations.

“The focus of the hearing is to find out why the market is in a sorry state today.

“We should dig and find out where we went wrong.

“We are looking for answers on how the market can bounce back to business.”

In his welcome address, El-Sudi re-echoed the position of the leadership of the House, as he promised that the committee would not attempt to intimidate any stakeholder.

According to him, the essence of the probe is to restore the confidence of investors in the market.

“It is common knowledge that  the market capitalisation  of the NSE fell from a height of N13.5tn to N4.6tn within 10 months in 2008.

“The situation up to now has not improved much”, he observed.

El-Sudi noted that while other markets in the USA, Britain and France that suffered similar fate had recovered, the case of Nigeria did not change.

He told the session that the committee’s aim was to identify the causes of the problem.

“We are not here to play the blame game or embark on witch hunt of anybody”, he assured.

Owoh, in his presentation, called for a review of the procedure for the appointment of the DG of SEC to involve private sector operators.

He claimed that the present arrangement where the DG was an appointee of the Presidency meant that government’s aim was to dominate a sector that was largely a private affair.

“The SEC DG should be decided by active private sector participants and not an appointment based on the recommendation of a minister”, he argued.

Owoh blamed the collapse of the market on several factors, particularly a “weak, real, industrial sector.”

He stated that a weak productive sector would not engender confidence in the market “because the value of shares will not increase and people will not be willing to buy shares.”

According to Owoh, if the real sector is fixed, the market will begin to revive gradually as a direct impact on the value of the shares of traded organisation.

Meanwhile, the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers, called for a law requiring all multi-national oil companies and telecommunications firms to list on the NSE.

The President of the institute, Mr. Mike Itegboye, told the panel that the listing of such money-spinning companies would restore investor confidence in the market.

Source: Punch/John Ameh